


And if the Bombs Start to Fall.

by TayBartlett9000



Category: All Creatures Great and Small (TV), All Creatures Great and Small - James Herriot
Genre: Brotherly Love, Brothers, Gen, Short Story, War, World War 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-27
Updated: 2019-01-27
Packaged: 2019-10-17 19:13:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17566352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TayBartlett9000/pseuds/TayBartlett9000
Summary: Siegfried Farnon can't sleep. He is worrying over too many things, especially the war that  is becoming ever more likely. His mind dwells upon  Tristan and how he will  protect him if war  does  come to pass.





	And if the Bombs Start to Fall.

Siegfried couldn’t sleep. He  lay awake, staring up at the ceiling of his bedroom, worry gnawing at his heart as a thousand and one thoughts swam through his mind, each thought more terrible than the last.

The trouble with the horses had been bad enough. He had lost his touch. One horse had already been put to sleep due to his lack of skills, something he had thought would never happen. The horse man. That was who Siegfried was. He was the best with horses of any man he knew but now, his confidence was quickly waning. That was why he had sent James to deal with them. He no longer trusted himself.

And then there   was those pigs. Foot and mouth desease on top of everything else. Siegfried  rolled over onto his side, sighing deeply  as he considered the plight of those pigs. If it was foot and mouth as he feared, then the entire lot would have to be slaughtered. Such a waste of life. He knew that the butchering of every single one of that poor farmer’s stock was practical, necessary even, but he felt greatly saddened for the poor man. Most of the farmers around Darrowby had spent the  entirety of their lives building up their stock and in one fell  swoop, everything was lost. Siegfried knew that to blame himself was a foolish thing to do, and yet he couldn’t help but feel that he had  brought bad luck to everyone he had visited recently.

Though these particular worries  were weighing heavily upon Siegfried  Farnon’s mind, the largest of his worries, the  terrifying notion that  was  keeping him awake,  was the war.

The country was on the edge  of disaster and even as he lay in bed, tossing, turning and  cursing the hours that were passing without sleep, the decision on whether Britain would be marching to war against Germany was being made.  And not a soul  could do anything about it. By tomorrow afternoon, they would know one way or the other  what was going to happen. Siegfried wished he could halt time in its tracks and somehow prevent the all-important decision from being made.

What would happen if  Britain went to  war? Siegfried  had no idea. He had lived through the horrors  of the Great War and he suspected that a second war with Germany would prove to be an even greater force of   humanitarian distruction than its predecessor. . Though he  hadn’t been caught up in the actual fighting, thank God, he had read enough headlines to make him panick. He had been a young man, a vet in training with a heart full of hope. Many men from his own village and the villages surrounding it had left Britain for Flanders in persute of what they thought would be a short and victorious war, but nine out of ten never made it home. 

 These had been dark times and Siegfried feared that  tomorrow would bring  forth another, possibly even  darker period.

Siegfried rolled over onto his back, blinking his  itching eyes and listening for a moment to the gentle sounds of Tristan snoring in the room next to his own.

Tristan.

He thought of his little brother, a  young man who had spent much of his adolescence and early adulthood  enjoying  himself. Indeed, Tristan had turned enjoying himself into a career of sorts, putting into it the amount of vigger and commitment that Siegfried had always put into his work as a vetenry sergion. Tristan, his innocent little brother knew very little about life as yet. Siegfried had  done his best to take care of his brother and until now, he had been glad that Tristan had been spared the knowledge and experience of the darker aspects of life.

Now though, he found himself regretting his actions. What would Tristan do if the propaganda took over his mind? What would he do if the newspapers and wireless tried their upmost to pressure him into becoming one of Britain’s fighting men? Siegfried was sure that his little brother was no fool, for he knew what war would mean,  but worry clawed at his insides even as he pondered the possibilities. He hated to think that Tristan would follow the rest of Britain’s young men into war. Siegfried was almost certain that he wouldn’t see him again if he did. He  didn’t think he would be able to   bear it.

Images of Tristan dressed as a soldier  disturbed him and Siegfried tried his best to erase those pictures from his mind. But they were pictures that could not be erased.  He would have to have a serious word with Tristan when he woke the next morning.

“There isn’t going to be a war.” That was what Tristan had spent so much time telling everybody. Was it true that he didn’t believe that Britain would go to war? If that was true, then he really was a fool. Anyone who payed attention to the newspapers would be able to deduce the reality of the situation. Of course there would be a war. That was more or less a certainty. All he could do was hope to God that the war wouldn’t touch their own lives too deeply.

 He wasn’t too worried about James. James would be fine. He always was. It was Tristan he was worrying about. He had always worried about Tristan, though he would never tell him that. It did not do for a brother to become too soft when he had to perform the duel role of older brother and father. He would  have to protect Tristan as much as he could and if he was called up for active service, he would have to make sure that  He was able to pull himself through it.

Glancing at the clock, Siegfried took note of the time.  Four  o’clock. Only seven hours before he would find out whether or not Britain was doomed. He    didn’t think he was very likely to get to sleep, so he lay awake, trying not to think about Tristan, or what he would do if his brother was taken from him by the war. He hoped that their roles as vets would keep them safe from recrutement. He couldn’t let anything happen to his little brother. He pushed away all  thoughts of possible danger and all images of Tristan dressed in soldiers’ attire. He could not allow himself to dwell upon it. Worrying only made things worse. He would find out soon enough whether or not  the country would descend into war. And if the bombs dis start to fall on Yorkshire, Siegfried would do all that he could as a  brother to keep Tristan safe. He had always been a determined soul, and he would put that determination to good use if war really did arrive on the shores of Britain.

Siegfried lay in silence, waiting for the  breaking of the day. The telephone in the  hallway remained quiet. He waited in his bedroom, waiting for the morning, waiting for the first call and waiting for the verdict that would decide the future of the country and maybe even that of the people at Skeldale house.


End file.
